Breaking The Rules
by Phoebsfan
Summary: Jo and Zane have a discussion about a ring, and come to some conclusions about so much more.


Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one related to Eureka.

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He was sitting behind her desk, bright and early Monday morning.

She wasn't surprised.

Not at all shocked that he could bypass security and break in, or that he would. She knew that he would find her. That she couldn't avoid him forever. That he was in no way finished with her.

That didn't stop her from wishing that he was, though. It didn't stop her from hoping that he would have forgotten the incident with the ring... and then that little fumble where they accidentally locked lips.

Okay, so it may not have been an accident on his part, but she shouldn't have kissed him back. Shouldn't have let herself get lost in the moment and forget that she was kissing a different man. That even if he looked and acted like her Zane, he never would be. She would never have any claim over his heart, and he certainly didn't want any over hers.

She had to let him go. And she almost had... then he had pushed the damn issue and now her heart was all twisted in knots again.

She hadn't been able to push the way his lips felt, the comfort of being lost in his arms, the smell of his skin... any of it really, from her mind. All weekend long she had locked herself away and pretended none of it had happened. And all weekend long she had found her mind drifting back to his lips and arms. To the answer he wanted to get from her.

He didn't really want to know what they were to each other, and she couldn't really tell him either. Not without breaking the rules, and oh how she loved rules. Even in times like this, when they offered little comfort.

But when she walked in and saw him sitting there, his feet propped up on her desk like he owned it, clever little smirk in place, she wanted to break every last one of them. Wanted to throw everything out the window and confess.

Yes, she loved him. Even this version of him had sparked something undeniable in her. If he wasn't so infuriating... if he wasn't so...so... So much like when they first met. So much like when she hated him but couldn't help her attraction to him.

If it wasn't so much like traveling back in time. Knowing that somewhere in him, there could be the man she was head over heels for. If she could just forget that slim possibility.

But how was she supposed to forget that and move on when he felt the same in her arms. When his lips had that same demanding pressure. When he tasted like her past, and her future. How was she supposed to just forget and let it go, when everything in her heart wanted to take another chance.

No, he might not have been done with her, but she was a fool to think that she ever could be done with him.

"So we never got to finish our chat the other day." He smirked and tilted further back in her chair as she removed her jacket and hung it in a hidden closet, seamlessly built into the wall.

"There was nothing more to say. Shouldn't you be doing something? Other than breaking into my office?" She asked as she came to stand in front of her desk.

Like what, he wondered. All he had been able to accomplish for the last two days was find himself distracted by the simplest thing. Everything seemed to remind him of those few seconds lost in her kiss. He had started it, true enough, but he had never expected her reaction.

It was Lupo, she wasn't supposed to kiss him back with that kind of passion. A slap to the cheek, shoving him away, those were what she was supposed to do. Not know exactly how to kiss him. And kiss so well. Her strong body reduced to putty in his hands.

She wasn't supposed to be so hungry for it, so ready to give in to it. Such an eager participant.

She could deny it all she wanted, but the fact remained, she had been acting on instinct. On repressed feelings. And he had enjoyed it far too much. So much so, that she was the one who had to break it off.

He didn't like to admit to himself that he would have kept kissing her had she not stopped kissing back. Didn't like to think she had that kind of control over his actions.

He comforted himself in knowing that it wasn't like he had never thought of her that way, she was nothing if not attractive. But she was also very off limits and a complete nightmare. He valued his life more than that.

Yet this Jo, she was different from the Lupo he knew.

Softer.

More feminine.

Even vulnerable.

And he couldn't deny it was sexy as hell.

There was something about that sad look in her eye, the one she only got when looking at him, that made him want to pull her close and whisper soft words. Something about her that made all kinds of protective urges that had never been present between the two of them, run rampant and almost uncontrollable.

Something about the faith she had in him, her new desire to give him a second chance. Her strange belief that he could be more... It made him almost want to try.

She also had his ring. Not just any ring, the ring he was supposed to give to that special someone. The ring he would not let just anyone have. Had never really even thought of giving to anyone.

And then, that day when she let him out of jail, the first time he noticed her strange behavior really.

She had come in with that goofy grin—the one he had always thought made her look especially irresistible—and said she would marry him. He hadn't known what to make of it, so he thought it was a joke. But when he found the ring, exactly where he left it, when he noticed how perfectly her ring matched the one in his possession.

There really hadn't been any way to deny it any longer. And in any other town he would have thought the idea was crazy. But this was Eureka, and she did have his ring.

And as crazy as the idea was.

He knew.

But he needed her to say it.

Needed her to say that somehow, somewhere, she loved him. That there was a version of himself who had been crazy about her as well. And that this was breaking that heart of steel she had locked away.

The really strange thing about it, though, wasn't that she had been in love with him, or even that he had been in love with her. It was that it no longer seemed impossible. That part of it might even seem natural. That it didn't bother him like it should.

And that part of him really wanted to kiss her again.

"See, funny thing. I found this..." He stood and pulled a ring box from his pocket. "...right where I left it." He tossed the box at her and she caught it before it fell to the floor. "Open it." He prompted.

Her heart stopped. He knew. She could tell by the way he looked at her, so confident that he had figured out her secret.

"This is silly." She objected and set the box on the corner of the desk, perhaps she could still diffuse the situation. Perhaps if she appeared unaffected, he would give up and go away.

He stepped around the desk, picked the box up again. He never had been one to give up easily when it came to giving her a hard time. Even her Zane would have enjoyed watching her squirm, so she couldn't really fault him for it.

It was her fault anyway. How she could have been so stupid, to throw the dumb ring at him in the first place, then to kiss him back... What had she been thinking? That he would just chalk it up to crazy Lupo behavior, blame some freak accident? Even Eureka couldn't explain away her actions.

At this point she really only had two choices. The truth. Or retreat. And though she didn't like to think of herself as a coward, this was one conversation she really couldn't have with him.

Jo stepped back as Zane stepped forward. Advancing slowly, stealthy, almost predatory, she could do nothing but continue to step away. Backwards, around the desk, until she tripped over the chair and found herself caught in his arms.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her voice a mere puff of air, as his eyes tried to read behind hers. His broad chest so familiar as he crushed her to him. Her skin tingling in anticipation, her eyes dilating in uncontrolled desire. She knew she was a mess, knew she couldn't bluff him when her body would always betray her.

"Nothing." He answered with a smirk, pulling her unnecessarily close. His lips suddenly very hungry for hers as they hovered just inches away. His eyes wandering down her face to her chest, trying without his permission, to see down that button down. To catch a glimpse at the perfection that was pressed against his chest. To see just what this other version got to touch and taste. The forbidden fruit that was Jo.

He was almost jealous of himself.

"Let go of me then." She prayed he never would. Wanted him to push her down to the desk instead, drag those full lips down her skin and make her forget that he wasn't hers. Forget that it was that sexy bad boy he played so damn well, that first put the fire in her blood. First crawled under her skin and then slipped into her heart, the one that refused to leave.

He was so close. He could see just closing his eyes and letting nature take over. But he knew, he couldn't do that to her. Jo wasn't just a quick screw. She never could be. It was part of why they had never gone there before, and now that he had evidence, hard evidence he could hold in his hand burning a hole in his pocket, searing the truth into his thigh, of what they could have been, he couldn't take that from her.

And he had a girlfriend. Jo would never forgive him for hurting Zoe. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why it wasn't the other way around. Why Zoe didn't pop into his mind first, why Zoe didn't hold such sway over his thoughts that he couldn't stop thinking about her. Why Zoe had never made letting go this hard before.

Why Zoe had never made him want to follow the rules like Jo did.

"Not a problem..." He paused for just a moment, hesitating in that last second. Then whispered softly as he released her. "Jo-Jo."

The loss was immediate and complete, his arms disturbingly empty as something in his chest tightened at the missed opportunity.

She put an extra step between them before answering, trying to calm her pounding heart and cool the heated blood.

"I told you not to call me that." She whispered, her right hand wrapping across her body to grab her left arm, just above the elbow, where his hand had been holding on to her with more force than necessary. She could still feel his fingers burnt into her skin. Branding her against her will.

Would she never be free of him? Why didn't that bother her?

"And I asked you about this ring." He pulled her ring from his pocket. "Which, is an exact match, for this one." He flipped the lid on the black velvet ring box and held them up to each other. "I found it particularly interesting that the stones both have the same exact flaw. If I didn't know better, I'd think that they were the same exact stone. But that can't be, right?" He pressed closer, tempting her to deny it, to tell him he was wrong, that they were the same ring.

There was something about her that made him forget about personal space. Always had been. He half expected her to step away from him again, but she didn't. Instead she tilted her head to the side, crossed her arms, as if to block him out. Silent for a heartbeat that made him wonder if maybe she would come clean. He didn't know why he was hoping for that. It would only confuse things further.

But part of him wanted to plead with her to do just that. To open up to him and help him understand this strange new connection they shared. To beg him to go away forever, or never leave her side. He didn't know which one would be more preferable at the moment.

And then she broke the silence and he had his answer.

"Of course not." She agreed with him, he nodded sadly and stuffed the ring box back in his pocket.

Not today.

Maybe one day she would tell him. But it wouldn't be now.

"Don't tell me then." He said softly, and she could swear he sounded almost disappointed. In what she couldn't say. Maybe if he had been her Zane, she would have broken the rules for him. Maybe if he hadn't been with Zoe, she would have said something, done something to claim him as hers. But he was and she didn't.

Only stood tall, as if nothing could touch her. His Jo had always been strong and unreachable, impenetrable, hard. She was becoming more like her everyday. He couldn't say he liked the change.

"I figured you should keep the ring anyway. He must have meant an awful lot to you." Zane continued softly as he grabbed her wrist with one hand and placed the ring in her hand, closing her fingers around it and letting his hand rest over hers. "Jo-Jo." He murmured softly before letting her hand slip from his and retreating to the doorway.

It was one of those moments. The ones where she couldn't tell the difference between them anymore. The ones where she had to bite her tongue and pretend it didn't matter. But it was too much.

"Wait." She called out, the word slipping from her lips before she could stop it. She wasn't his Jo, he wasn't her Zane, but that didn't stop the desperation she felt at his departure. It didn't stop the longing for his touch or the need to tell him everything.

It changed almost nothing in those moments.

But the moments passed, and then she was reminded of why should couldn't break those rules. Not even for a man who shared the same skin.

He paused with that expectant look on his face and she turned her face away. He nodded.

It was better this way. Better he never know the hurt she had locked in her heart. She could save him from that at least.

"He was a damn lucky man. I'm sorry I'm not him." He said as he disappeared out the door.

She watched as it slid closed behind him, then sank back onto the edge of her desk, that strength she found in his presence having left with him.

"Me too." She called out softly after him. "Me too."


End file.
